Counting finished for today - 2020 Territory Election

Counting in the 2020 Territory Election has finished for today.

The updated results are available on the NTEC website.

Counting will continue tomorrow, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 at 10am in Darwin and 2pm in Alice Springs.

Staff at the Alice Springs Scrutiny Centre will spend the morning sorting absent votes transported to the centre from Darwin.

From 2pm counting of those votes and the re-check of Central Australian divisions will continue.

The re-check of the Top End divisions will continue tomorrow at the Darwin Scrutiny Centre. This will be followed by a count of Top End absent votes cast in Central Australia if they arrive at the centre in the morning.

If they do not arrive until tomorrow afternoon they will counted on Thursday morning. Votes cast by electors temporarily residing in the Howard Springs COVID-19 quarantine facility will be counted at the same time as the Central Australian absent votes.

Based on a recommendation from the Department of Health these votes could not be opened until three days after the election.

At the end of the week the NTEC will conduct a second count for postal votes that have been returned this week if sufficient numbers are received.

There are also about 1700 declaration votes that are in the process of being confirmed by the Australian Electoral Commission.

Declaration votes are those cast by electors who are not on the electoral roll for various reasons, but believe they are eligible to cast a vote in the election.

Once they provide their details on an envelope their provisional vote is then placed inside the envelope.

Once their details and eligibility to be enrolled have been confirmed by the AEC the ballot contained inside the envelope will be added to the count.

The AEC has conveyed to the NTEC that they will complete the confirmation process of electors’ eligibility by close of business Monday.

At this stage a recount of all divisions with a margin of less than 100 will take place next Wednesday, 2 September.

The full distribution of preferences will take place following the deadline for the receipt of postal votes at 12 noon on Friday, 4 September.